[BLOG] IT'S ALIVE part II: Of Mantras and Micrometers

Myrmidon · March 2009

As requested (though probably jokingly), photos of the previous blog post follow.

The most viewable parts of the test vehicle are the gold source/drain contacts on each transistor. A keen eye will also spot the channel between the transistors - this is on the order of 10-100 micrometers. There are six EXTREMELY LARGE transistors on this test vehicle. The real product that is used in the kind of flexible displays seen here is generally small enough to hide behind a pixel, although I'm not entirely sure of that claim.

Oh, and before I begin - this is a dead device, so I am not wearing gloves, goggles, or a lab coat. Don't do that with live devices, kids, or you'll ruin them.

Meet 030609-30!
<img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/dputnam/P3270175.jpg" width="600" height="450">
Those purple spots and lines you see are actually on the BACK of the device - our spin coating machines are a little dirty. Be assured the front of the device is (or used to be, before this) pristine.

How big is this little guy?
<img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/dputnam/P3270156.jpg" width="600" height="450">
As you can see, not too big. He's built on a 1 inch square glass slide covered with a thin layer of indium tin oxide... it's a lot of work to make flexible transistors, and my study is in semiconducting layers - so I'm not doing the extra work to make him flashy.

I want a closer look.
<img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/dputnam/P3270162.jpg" width="600" height="450">
Do you see the scratches on the gold contacts? The contacts are so thin (on the 10^-7m order of magnitude) that the probes from the parameter analyzer actually scratch them up and create bridges to the gate. This is part of the reason the little bastard died. Notice also the bands at the top and bottom of the device - this is bare ITO, my gate. The dielectric and semiconducting layer are everywhere else.

It looks transparent! Is there anything on it?
<img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/dputnam/P3270064.jpg" width="600" height="450">
This photo was taken using the glare from the overhead lights to illustrate the purple tint. Some of you electronics buffs might mistake this purple flash for indium tin oxide, but it is in fact the semiconducting layer. If I had made the device correctly, it'd be much prettier.

Are you much prettier?
<img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/dputnam/P3270114.jpg" width="600" height="450">
No. Just more narcissistic.

What's next?
<img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/dputnam/P3270170.jpg" width="600" height="450">
The astute will notice that this is not the same device - this one was GOING to be the next one tested. Notice how much more even the coating is (although many dips and divots still exist). However, unlike the device in the previous photos, this is a bottom-contact device. After getting results for the previous device, I have decided to scrap bottom-contact research and pursue top-contact. So now this little guy is photo-fodder, too!

By the way - I'm advised to keep a lot of the REAL technical info on the DL until I get a paper published, but nobody's got questions anyway, right?